Sneak peek at JRI-Poland user dashboard encore
2022-12-31 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)

Understanding the different record collections in the JRI-Poland database
2022-12-31 08:00 - 17:00

A tour of the jri poland search system
2023-01-01 08:00 - 09:00

Poland's changing borders
2023-02-01 08:00 - 09:00

Understanding patronyms what did ashkenazic jews do before surnames
2023-03-01 08:00 - 17:00

Jri-Poland general users meeting
2023-04-01 08:00 - 17:00

JRI-Poland general users meeting 2
2023-04-01 08:00 - 17:00

Poland's changing borders encore
2023-04-15 08:00 - 17:00

A tour of the JRI-Poland search system Europe-Israel-Australasia friendly time
2023-04-30 08:00 - 17:00

Mishpachah Festival - A Celebration of Genealogy, Heritage and Immigration
2023-05-21 | Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place, New York, NY, 10280, United States
We are pleased to announce that JRI-Poland is a Partner in the Mishpachah Festival being held on May 21, 2023 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York in cooperation with the Museum and JewishGen. Our Executive Board member, Hadassah Lipsius, will be giving a short presentation on researching Jewish records of Poland and will be available to answer your questions at our JRI-Poland table. Register for the Mishpachah day and come say Dzień dobry!

Hadassah will be also be a presenting at 2 PM as part of the Jewish Genealogical Society Inc (JGSNY) session titled Researching Our Families: Three Case Studies. The 2 PM sessions will be livestreamed for registrants of the Mishpachah Festival.
Learn More

Using Cemetery and Burial Records in the JRI-Poland Database
2023-06-04 13:00 - 15:00
Cemeteries form an important link to our Jewish ancestors. Whether or not the tombstones (matzevot) still exist undisturbed, Burial Records and Cemetery Lists can be helpful in preparing for a visit to a Jewish Cemetery in Poland or improving your family history information. Join us for a presentation about the diverse Cemetery lists that can be found in the JRI-Poland database that will include helpful hints on how to use the JRI-Poland database and the information in it from our partner organization: the Foundation for the Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland. Specific examples will include lists from Wroclaw (Breslau), Bytom, and Warszawa (Warsaw), and the JRI-Poland database includes much more!
Hadassah Lipsius is the vice president of JRI-Poland.org and a recipient of the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement award. Her work for JRI-Poland includes serving as the Warszawa Area Coordinator. She often speaks on behalf of JRI-Poland and conducts workshops on how to successfully use the JRI-Poland website.

This event is for JRI-Poland Annual Members Only. To learn whether you are a current member, please hover over the HELLO button at the top right of your screen and click on “My Profile”. Become a contributing member for $54 a year using your My Profile screen and join us for this and other great presentations!

Stanley Diamond's 90th Birthday Toast
2023-09-10 13:00 - 14:00 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/stanleys-zoom-birthday-event/
It’s hard to believe, but our beloved Stanley Diamond is turning 90 this month. Seems like the right moment to get our smiling faces online and show Stanley what he means to us. Bring a glass of your favorite celebratory drink so you can literally raise a glass in honor of this man who means so much to so many of us. Happy Birthday, Stanley! We hope to celebrate many more round numbers with you… including, but not limited to 120!
UPDATE! – To accomodate more viewers with different viewing needs, we will now be livestreaming the event using our Wistia Live platform and simulcasting to Facebook and Youtube Live. You will not need any other software, but you should REGISTER USING THIS LINK.
If you have already registered, you need do nothing. You will receive confirmation emails and calendar invitations from Wistia Live.

Galician Vital Registers: Finding & Understanding Your Family's Records
2023-10-29 13:00 - 14:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/galician-vital-registers-finding-understanding-your-familys-records/
Join us for a 90-minute presentation led by Mark Halpern, our JRI-Poland Galicia
Research Area Coordinator and long-time executive committee member. Mark is
certainly an expert on how to successfully research your families from this
complicated area of the world. Towns that were once part of Galicia include
places in either Poland or Ukraine today.
This Galician session offers:

An in-depth examination of Galician vital records,
A strategic framework to help researchers in acquiring records to further
their research,
Historical perspective covering the regulations that governed Jewish
recordkeeping in Galicia, including those affecting civil marriages that
impacted the legitimacy and surnames of children.
The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.
The presentation will be recorded for later viewing in the JRI-Poland Video
Library which is available as a benefit of Annual Membership in JRI-
Poland.

Advance registration is required. Register for this presentation by visiting the link
below.
This session is limited to JRI-Poland’s annual members who pay $54 annually
which pays for the operation of our organization rather than for funding specific
data gathering projects. To determine if you are a current member, please Log In
to the JRI-Poland.org website and hover over the WELCOME blurb at the top
right of the screen. Clicking on the menu option called “My Profile” will take you
to the details about your membership status and is the place where you can
become a member or renew your membership, if needed.
See you at the presentation!

Researching the Jews of Prussian Poland
2023-11-19 13:00 - 14:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/researching-the-jews-of-prussian-poland/
Join us Sunday, November 19, 2023 for a 90 minute session about Prussian Poland. Much of today’s Poland belonged to Prussia (later the German Empire) before the two world wars. The many Jewish communities in the region once comprised 30% of Germany’s Jews before migration to Berlin and elsewhere diminished their numbers.
This presentation will discuss the communities, their relationship to Prussia/Germany, and the basics of researching one’s ancestors from the region. Central topic will be the resources of the Polish State Archives and how to make good use of them. Many examples will be used and a lively question-and-answer period will be offered. Presented by Roger Lustig.
Roger Lustig is the JRI-Poland Prussian Poland Area Coordinator and contributor to the JRI-Poland database for over 20 years. He is a frequent speaker on this topic and is an expert researcher and teacher in this field. Roger is based in Princeton, New Jersey.
This session is open to JRI-Poland currently paid members which is a separate annual fee of $54. You can join us as a member by hovering over the HELLO blurb at the top right corner of any of our webpages and clicking on MY PROFILE.

Attribution: IMAGE of Prussian Coat of Arms – By David Liuzzo, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14639833

Researching the Jews of Breslau (Wrocław) with JRI-Poland.org
2024-02-25 13:00 - 14:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/researching-the-jews-of-breslau-wroclaw-with-jri-poland-org/
Join us for a Members Only event presented by Stephen Falk, JRI-Poland’s Wrocław (Breslau) Area Coordinator and “town leader”, about the surviving documentation for the Jews of this important metropolis which attracted residents from far and wide. Stephen’s presentation should interest most researchers with Prussian roots. Special focus includes valuable records, some available online, others only by appointment at archives, as well as Stephen’s ongoing project regarding the lost Claassenstrasse cemetery (1761-1856).
Before the War, Breslau had the 3rd largest Jewish community in Germany. Now, as Wrocław, it is the third largest city in Poland and the historical capital of Silesia. With a magnificent 1000-year history, Wrocław has been part of kingdoms in Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Hapsburg Empire, Prussia, and Germany.

Stephen Falk was an intellectual property attorney in Philadelphia for over 20 years. In 2013, he moved across the country to Point Roberts, Washington and soon after became president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of British Columbia, just across the US-Canadian border. With both parents born in Breslau, the Jewish community records of that city have been the focus of his research for decades.

Braided Challah on the Shelves: Finding Remnants of our Families Lives in Poland
2024-06-09 13:00 - 14:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/braided-challah-on-the-shelves-finding-remnants-of-our-families-lives-in-poland/
In 2008, author Barbara Krasner visited her grandparents’ shtetlikh in northeastern Poland. In this talk, she shares how she found physical traces of her family in shops, cemeteries, and streets, and how you can too. Join us for this special JRI-Poland Members Only presentation!
AFTER registering, you should receive an email with the word TICKET in the subject line that will include the link for the event. IF you do not receive the email, please use the Tawk.to chat widget at the bottom right corner of the screen to contact our volunteers.

Barbara Krasner is a former member of JRI-Poland’s board of directors and one of our earliest transliterators. She holds a PhD in Holocaust & Genocide Studies from Gratz College and serves as Director, Mercer County (NJ) Holocaust, Genocide & Human Rights Education Center. Visit her website at www.barbarakrasner.com.

Finding the Original Source Documents - A How To Guide
2024-12-05 20:00 - 21:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/finding-the-original-source-documents-a-how-to-guide/
Join us to learn the in’s and out’s of how to find your document of interest on the Internet (if it is there). JRI-Poland veteran researchers, Hadassah Lipsius and Robinn Magid team up for this special Members Only event to show you what to do to search for and hopefully locate images of your family’s original source document once you’ve found it in the JRI-Poland search results. Topics covered will include what to do if it is NOT clickable from the JRI-Poland database including how to find records on the Polish State Archives publicly accessible website, and additional websites that may be available. We will also cover your available options if you discover that your precious document is not available online. The 90 minute session will include approximately 50% presentation time and ample Question & Answer Time and will be recorded for addition to our JRI-Poland Video Library for the exclusive use of our members.
(A JRI-Poland member is someone who donates $54 US specifically for the purpose of Membership and is necessary to support our General Fund. It is separate and distinct from a gift to our specific projects such as our Town Funds or NextGen Fund. All are necessary to our success helping you – but Membership is a relatively new way to support us.)
This session will be presented two times to accommodate our viewers around the globe since we expect a lot of questions. Each session has a separate sign up, yet it is possible to sign up for more than one. If you have any problems or questions, please use the Tawk.to Chat Widget for quick response. (It resembles a cartoon chat bubble with a smile and is located at the bottom right of most screens of our website.)

Finding the Original Source Documents - A How To Guide
2024-12-08 13:00 - 14:30 | https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87196390294
Join us to learn the in’s and out’s of how to find your document of interest on the Internet (if it is there). This will be the second of two identical sessions, planned separately to accommodate our members around the globe… JRI-Poland veteran researchers, Hadassah Lipsius and Robinn Magid team up for this special Members Only event to show you what to do to search for and hopefully locate images of your family’s original source document once you’ve found it in the JRI-Poland search results. Topics covered will include what to do if it is NOT clickable from the JRI-Poland database including how to find records on the Polish State Archives publicly accessible website, and additional websites that may be available. We will also cover your available options if you discover that your precious document is not available online. The 90 minute session will include approximately 50% presentation time and ample Question & Answer Time and will be recorded for addition to our JRI-Poland Video Library for the exclusive use of our members.
(A JRI-Poland member is someone who donates $54 US specifically for the purpose of Membership and is necessary to support our General Fund. It is separate and distinct from a gift to our specific projects such as our Town Funds or NextGen Fund. All are necessary to our success helping you – but Membership is a relatively new way to support us.)
This session will be presented two times to accommodate our viewers around the globe since we expect a lot of questions. Each session has a separate sign up, yet it is possible to sign up for more than one. If you have any problems or questions, please use the Tawk.to Chat Widget for quick response. (It resembles a cartoon chat bubble with a smile and is located at the bottom right of most screens of our website.)

Discovering & Understanding Family Registration Cards
2025-02-23 13:00 - 14:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/discovering-understanding-family-registration-cards/
In 1928, each Polish town was obliged by law to register all domiciles. This was done using Family Registration Cards (FRCs). These cards were later used by the Germans and then by the new administration in the first years after World War ll. Many cards survived in state archives and local museums. To study their value, Dr. Klauzinska extracted and analyzed more than 6,500 FRCs of Jews from her hometown of Zduńska Wola. She will share her analysis and findings such as the community’s pre-war size, range of professions, population structure and dynamics.
Knowing the German occupation forces used these cards, Dr. Klauzinska was also able to examine them for what they reveal about Jewish life during the war in the ghetto. Based on her research, Dr. Klauzinska will provide recommendations for JRI-Poland’s members wishing to study FRC data from ancestral towns throughout Poland.
This is a members only event, for JRI-Poland users who have contributed $54 annually for this specific purpose. Please join us as a JRI-Poland member by using the MY PROFILE option on the drop down menu when hovering over the “HELLO” blurb on any JRI-Poland webpage.
Kamila Klauzinska has a PhD from the Department of Jewish Studies, the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Her PhD dissertation focused on Modern Jewish genealogy for which she was awarded a research prize from the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy. Her M.A. thesis focused on the Jewish cemetery in Zdunska Wola. Dr. Klauzinska was a Visiting Scholar in a number of prominent institutions, including the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (2011). In 2010 she was awarded the Bronze Medal For Merits to Culture “Gloria Artis” by the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

JRI-Poland Book Club with Daniel Mendelsohn - Author of "The Lost: A Search for Six of the Six Million"
2025-03-31 20:00 - 21:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/jri-poland-book-club-with-daniel-mendelson-author-of-the-lost-a-search-for-six-of-the-six-million/
Join JRI-Poland’s new Book Club for a discussion with the author, Daniel Mendelsohn!
There’s still plenty of time to read “The Lost: A Search for Six of the Six Million”, the story of Mendelsohn’s amazing search for information about his great-uncle Samuel (Shmiel) Jäger.
The Lost has won the National Jewish Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States and the Prix Medicis in France. Mendelsohn teaches Literature at Bard College and is Editor-at-Large of the New York Review of Books.
JRI-Poland Book Club Meetings are open to JRI-Poland members only. A JRI-Poland member is someone who donates $54 annually for that specific purpose. It is not a part of a donation to a town specific project. To become a JRI-Poland member or to check your membership status, log into the JRI-Poland.org website, hover over the HELLO blurb at the top of any of our website’s pages, and you will see a drop down menu. Choose the MY PROFILE option to update your membership.

The Basics of Using the JRI-Poland Website
2025-04-03 20:00 - 21:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/the-basics-of-using-the-jri-poland-website/
Join us for a detailed tour of the essential features and the latest additions to the JRI-Poland website. This 90 minute session is designed for the new or casual user who craves an introduction to using the JRI-Poland website to its highest potential – quickly and easily.
Even experienced JRI-Poland users can benefit from this session on how to use the newer features of our system and what our next new additions of features and data will be.

Special emphasis will be placed on how best to communicate with our volunteers.
This session is open to any JRI-Poland registered user.

Come get oriented. Come get your questions answered. We’d love to have you join us in what is sure to be a lively and friendly session.
Led by Robinn Magid, JRI-Poland president and NextGen Project Manager.

JRI-Poland Book Club Meeting #2 - "The Keeper of Hidden Books" by Madeline Martin
2025-11-03 20:00 - 21:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/jri-poland-book-club/
Join us for the next JRI-Poland Book Club Meeting!
Led by JRI-Poland board members Hadassah Lipsius and Judy Baston, the book club’s next Zoom meeting will be held on Monday, November 3rd at 8 pm Eastern. It will feature special guest, Madeline Martin, award-winning author of the book we are reading, “The Keeper of Hidden Books”.
Published in 2023, this work of historical fiction reveals the real-life perils faced by Warsaw’s heroic librarians during World War II. Booklovers will savor this story focusing on one librarian and the people and books that she works to save. A highly relatable book for genealogists, The Keeper of Hidden Books was nominated for the 2023 Goodreads Award and is a national and international bestseller.
The book can be found here:
The Keeper of Hidden Books

Please note that participants in the Book Group must be dues-paying members of JRI-Poland. You can check your membership status by logging into the JRI-Poland.org website and checking the status bubble just under the “HELLO” message at the top of your screen. Hovering over the “HELLO” message will invoke a drop-down menu with the option called “MY PROFILE” where you can join if you have not yet by paying $54 annual dues.

Finding Your Family's Hometown: A Guide for the Perplexed
2025-11-13 20:00 - 21:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/finding-your-familys-hometown-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/
We realize that our website supposes that you have a good idea of the town(s) that your family came from – but what if you don’t?
Join us either Thursday, November 13th at 8 pm Eastern or Sunday, November 16th at 12 pm Eastern for a 90-minute interactive discussion with JRI-Poland president, Robinn Magid, focusing on Finding Your Family’s Hometown. The two sessions have different sign ups. You are welcome to attend either or both.
This is the signup for the THURSDAY, November 13th event.
We receive a fair number of questions from people who:

Only know that their family came from “Russia”, “Austria” or “Russian Poland”;
Cannot find “their town” on a map;
Think that the town “no longer exists”;
Are unsure why they cannot find their family name in the town they expect;
Have never found a family document in the JRI-Poland database.

If any of these cases describe you, please join us and we’ll do our best to help each other!
Please note that participants in this session must be dues-paying members of JRI-Poland. You can check your membership status by logging into the JRI-Poland.org website and checking the status bubble just under the “HELLO” message at the top of your screen. Hovering over the “HELLO” message will invoke a drop-down menu with the option called “MY PROFILE” where you can join if you have not yet by paying $54 annual dues.

Finding Your Family's Hometown: A Guide for the Perplexed
2025-11-16 12:00 - 13:30 | https://www.jri-poland.org/event/5664/
We realize that our website supposes that you have a good idea of the town(s) that your family came from – but what if you don’t?
Join us either Thursday, November 13th at 8 pm Eastern or Sunday, November 16th at 12 pm Eastern for a 90-minute interactive discussion with JRI-Poland president, Robinn Magid, focusing on Finding Your Family’s Hometown. The two sessions have different sign ups. You are welcome to attend either or both.
This is the signup for the Sunday, November 16th event.
We receive a fair number of questions from people who:

Only know that their family came from “Russia”, “Austria” or “Russian Poland”;
Cannot find “their town” on a map;
Think that the town “no longer exists”;
Are unsure why they cannot find their family name in the town they expect;
Have never found a family document in the JRI-Poland database.

If any of these cases describe you, please join us and we’ll do our best to help each other!
Please note that participants in this session must be dues-paying members of JRI-Poland. You can check your membership status by logging into the JRI-Poland.org website and checking the status bubble just under the “HELLO” message at the top of your screen. Hovering over the “HELLO” message will invoke a drop-down menu with the option called “MY PROFILE” where you can join if you have not yet by paying $54 annual dues.
